MotoGP Netherlands: Crutchlow: 'Jack deserves it'

One of the first to congratulate Jack Miller on his shock debut MotoGP victory at Assen was former team-mate Cal Crutchlow.

Miller had stayed at the Englishman's place on the Isle of Man in the run-up to the Dutch round and thanked him for helping improve his fitness.

"I've been working crazy hard on my physical condition to become more of an athlete," said Miller, the first non-factory rider to win a MotoGP race since 2006. "I have to thank Cal. He can be credited with this as well.

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"I went to the Isle of Man and stayed with him. We all know Cal is a world-class cyclist. We put in 500k in just over a week on pushbikes in the mountains in the f**king Isle of Man!"

"We got rid of him after a week because he ate us out of house and home," Crutchlow joked later in the evening, before admitting he was delighted to see the 21-year-old's efforts rewarded in the best possible way.

"If there was any other guy that I would want to win - except for myself - it would be him. Jack deserves it.

"It's taken me six years and I still haven't won - and he's done it in his second year! Ironically, we sat at dinner last night and Jack said 'I'm going down tomorrow'. But he was the only one that stayed up and won the race!

"Jack puts a lot of effort in and is so talented, as you saw today. He beat Marc Marquez on a worse machine and that doesn't happen often. No matter what the weather conditions; he's beat him and that's it.

"Jack can still learn some things to be a better professional but he's only young. And it's different jumping from Moto3 to MotoGP compared to going Moto3-Moto2-MotoGP. But in the end he will be a rider in the front of MotoGP."

Crutchlow and Miller were team-mates during the Australian's rookie 2015 season, after which LCR downsized to a single bike and Miller was moved to Marc VDS.

"Hopefully we can have him back in 2018 in this team," Crutchlow stated. "I think it would be a good strong team, me and him. It would work well with Honda, if he continues with them for that length of time. I think today he's proved he's got the talent.

"Jack probably had a 350 grand pay day, so I cannot imagine the party tonight! I'm not sure we'll see him at Sachsenring. He might just drop the mic!"